The car used for the challenge was a Vauxhall Motors Ltd Corsa Elite which has a 1.2 litre petrol engine and the set route encompassed urban, rural and high-speed roads.

Representing Esso, Guinness World Record holder Kevin Booker – one of the most successful hypermilers in the UK, alongside RED’s top trainer Iain West-Moore, shared tips that achieved an average of 19.3% higher yield than the MPG achieved by untrained drivers on the same route.

This equates to a fuel efficiency gain which could save thousands of pounds for businesses. We offer a range of fuel-saving courses for businesses, large or small. Find out more here

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• 220 RED Instructors achieved a 5-Star customer review
• More than 1,000 5-Star reviews were posted in the campaign period
• Securing RED’s position as the most reviewed driving school in the country with a Trust Score of 4.5 out of a maximum 5.

The stars of the campaign are shown below

East Midlands

East of England

Greater London

North East England, Yorkshire and the Humber

North West England

Scotland

South East England

South West England

Wales

West Midlands

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Earlier this year, alongside our partners at Kwik Fit and Michelin, RED Driving School took part in some research to understand which areas – outside of the learning to drive process – in which learner and new drivers would benefit from some added advice. The results showed that car maintenance and MOTS are an area of uncertainty for many.

So much so, the survey found that 95% of respondents admit that they don’t perform basic checks between services and MOTs. The findings also revealed that almost a third (29%) of respondents wouldn’t be able to spot the signs of needing a brake replacement and over a quarter (27%) of respondents don’t know when their car is due a service. In addition to this, a significant portion of respondents (30%) didn’t know the difference between an MOT and a service.

As one of the largest independent automotive parts, repair and replacement specialists in the world, Kwik Fit has provided an easy guide to remembering the key differences between MOTs and services, and why frequent maintenance is important to car health.

Seb Goldin, CEO of RED Driving School comments, “The findings of the survey demonstrate not only an education gap, but a lack of desire to understand how to safely maintain a car which can prove both dangerous and more costly in the long run. It’s not news or groundbreaking to announce that cars require maintenance – but it is a little startling to understand that this isn’t a priority for new and learner drivers who rely so heavily on their cars to get around and enjoy the freedom that learning to drive brings.”

The research also revealed that the main reason for delaying maintenance work in between designated services is due to the financial imposition that this brings, demonstrating that new drivers are potentially endangering themselves due to monetary concerns as the cost of living crisis continues to impact the UK.

Richard Bezzant, Marketing Director UK & ROI, Michelin Tyre PLC comments, “Checking things like your tyre pressure, tread depth and overall tyre condition should be conducted regularly and always prior to an MOT. They are simple but effective steps in helping to ensure vehicle safety, fuel efficiency and tyre life.

“You can measure tread depth in a variety of ways, ideally with a tread depth gauge – or if not to hand, by inserting a twenty pence coin – the outer band of which can help indicate if the minimum legal UK tread depth of 1.6mm is met. Insert the coin into the grooves.. If the coin’s outer band disappears from view across at least three quarters of the tread, there is sufficient tyre tread depth remaining.”

Eric Smith, Group MOT Scheme Manager at Kwik Fit comments, “The cost of an MOT test is a relatively small proportion of a car’s annual running costs and considering the number of checks it covers, it is really good value. It becomes more costly if a car fails its test, but if drivers regularly check their vehicle and keep it well maintained, they can steer clear of nasty surprises at MOT time. Many common MOT failures, such as illegal tyres, faulty brakes or lights not working, can be avoided by drivers monitoring their vehicle’s condition throughout the year.”

For more information about the importance and differences between individual types of car maintenance, please visit the Kwik Fit website: 

• Servicing And MOT Check: Exactly What is the Difference?
• What is Included in a Car Service?
• What service do I need for my car?

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We know that the DVSA recommends that it takes an average of 45 hours of professional instruction and 22 hours of private practice to learn to drive, so RED’s learner car insurance will allow prospective and current students to gain additional practice outside of lessons to get through the driving test with confidence – whether it’s one day’s insurance or up to five months’ cover you’re looking for.

Practice outside of professional lessons in your own car, a parent or a friend’s can give additional confidence on top of the knowledge given by your RED instructor, opening up the opportunity to get on the road at different times of the day or week, helping to gain valuable on-road experience.

RED’s Learner Driver Insurance, powered by DayInsure, provides temporary car insurance for provisional driving licence holders – not just those learning with RED Driving School – to enable learners to practice driving in another car outside of professional lessons whilst being properly supervised. The insurance is flexible with short term policies starting from one day up to five months which means learners only pay for the cover they need, with no cancellation fee and a low excess of £250.

To learn more about RED Driving School’s learner insurance, please visit www.reddrivingschool.com/learner-driver-insurance to fill in the simple quote form.

The post RED Driving School launches flexible learner driver car insurance  appeared first on RED Driving School.

A huge part of our purpose is to ensure that our learner drivers feel safe, encouraged, and listened to. We therefore always welcome feedback, and last week we received our 5,000th learner review on TrustPilot. A brilliant feat and excitingly, 84% of these reviewers rate RED Driving School as “Excellent”.

Maisy was our number 5,000 who had been taught by RED Driving Instructor, John Hinton, and shared her experience which went further than just learning to drive, with plenty of laughs and enjoyment along the way too.

We’re incredibly proud of all RED Driving Instructors across the country who go the extra mile for our customers, every day. Our instructors and support team who focus on delivering exemplary service are a huge part of what awards us the “Best National Driving School” year after year.

The post RED Driving School receives 5,000 learner reviews – the first driving school in the UK to reach this milestone appeared first on RED Driving School.

We’re delighted to announce that we have won the award for National Driving School of the Year in the Intelligent Instructor 2022 Awards for the second consecutive year, and the third time we’ve won the award in the last four years!

In association with Kwik Fit and Michelin, the Intelligent Instructor Awards 2022 recognise the very best instructors, driving schools and suppliers in the industry nationwide. The criteria for the National Driving School of the Year award includes the delivery of excellent customer service, providing innovative and effective instruction, commitment to road safety, and support for instructors and strong business development.

In addition, we have also been awarded Feefo’s Platinum Trusted Service Award for the third successive year. The award is for “consistently delivering excellence” in the Instructor Training part of our business. We are proud to say that this is an industry first and the highest accolade awarded by the independent reviews provider Feefo, demonstrating that RED has the best driving instructor training course in the UK.

New drivers often have more recent experience of being a vulnerable road user themselves – either as a CEO of RED Driving School, Seb Goldin comments on the award win: “We’re absolutely thrilled to accept these two prestigious accolades. This marks a fantastic start to the year for RED and is testament to the team effort involving all our hard-working Driving Instructors who have delivered great service during these turbulent times.

“Having joined RED as the new CEO in the last few months, it became immediately clear how diligently everyone at RED has worked to maintain the highest quality services for instructors and learners – especially during what has been another busy year with continued test backlogs and high demand for lessons.

“The quality of training that we provide to our instructors translates into quality training for those learning to drive with RED and means that our driving instructors are regarded as among the best in the country. We’re looking forward to the year ahead and seeing the continued great work of our instructors and wider team.” 

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We have more than 1,500 Driving Instructors on the road and our contact centre and online booking systems are fully operational.

England, Wales and Scotland

The DVSA have now lifted the Covid 19 restrictions affecting driving and theory tests in England, Wales and Scotland. 

Face coverings will be a personal choice for practical and theory test candidates and examiners, and we recommend the use of face coverings on driving lessons.

Instructors and accompanying drivers are able to sit in on driving tests

We strongly urge you to rearrange your driving lessons or driving test if you test positive, have symptoms or feel unwell for any reason.

Before each lesson, every customer will be asked to declare that they are symptom-free.

The DVSA recommend taking a lateral flow test before taking your driving test.

Scotland

In Scotland people testing positive for Covid can only come out of isolation if they return a negative LFD test on both day 6 and day 7 – this will remain the case until the end of April.

Introductory Offer

INTRODUCTORY OFFER – 14 FOR 12*

That’s 2 free hours when you book 12.

Call us in office hours or book online 24/7

0330 332 2680

BOOK ONLINE

If there are no instructors covering your area, please call our contact centre or alternatively purchase REDs Gift Voucher for driving lessons as soon as possible.

Find out more about RED’s Gift Voucher scheme

Our online booking system updates every day with the latest instructor availability so be sure to check back to find a lesson slot that suits you.

*Offer is only available to provisional license holders in a manual car and in selected UK postcodes. Only one 14 for 12 package is available per customer. Offer is not available in conjunction with any other learner driver price promotion and is not available to existing red customers. Offer is available for a limited time.

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Sebastian (Seb) Goldin will replace Ian McIntosh with effect from January 5, 2022 and will continue the growth of the business in both the consumer and B2B sectors.

Ian McIntosh will remain on RED’s board as a non-executive director.

See the full release here:

RED Driver Training appoints Sebastian Goldin as company’s new CEO

RED Driver Training which includes RED Driving School and RED Driver Risk Management, has announced the appointment of Sebastian (Seb) Goldin as the new Group CEO of the company, with effect from January 5th 2022.
Goldin joins RED from the position of Commercial Director at the TTC Group, a driver risk management business serving the corporate market. He has wide ranging experience in the driver training market having acted as Managing Director of the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) and then founding the driver training company ‘Business Driver’. After several successful years, Business Driver was acquired by the TTC Group and Goldin joined that organisation as Commercial Director.

He replaces Ian McIntosh who took the position of CEO of RED in 2012. Ian is stepping down as CEO after 10 years at the company which saw him transform the business, eventually helping it to earn leading status in the driving school market. Ian will oversee a smooth transition in Jan-April next year and will remain on the board of the parent company as a non-executive director.

Neil Cunningham, the RED Group Chairman, said: “On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Ian for leading the business over many years and especially during the challenges the business faced in the past 18 months. Ian has helped us select a new CEO and we now look forward to the next phase of development, led by Seb, as we grow our operations across the wide spectrum of driver training.”

Ian McIntosh, CEO of RED Driving School, said: “The time has come for me to hand over the reins to a successor, and it is my intention to step down from the role of CEO around the beginning of 2022. I have thoroughly enjoyed my RED journey – it has been my absolute privilege and honour to lead a business with so many exceptional driver trainers and staffed by so many talented individuals, and I’m so proud of everything we have achieved together.

“RED has ambitious plans to continue its expansion in the driver training sector, and Seb is just the person to help drive that growth. It is a really exciting and interesting phase in the development of the company and I am confident that Seb and the management team will have great success in the next phase of business expansion.”

On his appointment, Goldin said: “I am delighted to be joining RED Driver Training, and really looking forward to being part of such a dynamic and growing company. RED Driving School is enjoying an extraordinary demand for driving lessons and a key focus will be recruiting and training new instructors to meet the future demand. RED Driver Risk Management operating from its Donington Park Training Centre, presents the opportunity to help the business community meet its health and safety obligations while also reducing operating costs. I am very much looking forward to the challenge of developing these many and varied opportunities at RED in particular the highly regarded e-platform ‘Automotional’ which facilitates the complete driver profiling for RED’s business clients.”

The company is backed by lead investor Trimountain Partners and Ashridge Capital which together with management executed a leveraged buy-out in April 2019.

Ali Khanbhai, Partner and Co-Founder of Trimountain Partners, and David Sherratt, Founder and CEO of Ashridge Capital, said: “We are extremely grateful to Ian for his many years of service to RED and for being such a driving force in the business to-date. It has been a real privilege to partner with Ian and the management team of RED since our investment in April 2019, and we look forward to continuing to work with Ian at a board level going forward. We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Seb as the new CEO of RED and believe, given his breadth and depth of experience, that Seb is terrifically positioned to lead RED’s continued growth in the driving school and fleet training markets, building on the solid foundation laid by Ian and the rest of team.”

Seb Goldin

ENDS

Further information
Andy Mitchell, Commercial Director
Andy.mitchell@go-red.co.uk
07809 507214

About RED Driving School
RED Driving School, part of RDS Driving Services Ltd, is the UK’s largest driving school. RED Driving School teaches in excess of 100,000 learner drivers to pass the UK government driving test each year. RED delivers a tailored teaching programme focused on helping its pupils become safe and confident drivers beyond the test stage. RED is a franchise business, allowing driving instructors to trade under the company’s established and trusted name. Instructors benefit from a centralised lesson booking system, national promotion by association with RED and a range of technical and business development support services. www.reddrivingschool.com

About Trimountain Partners
Trimountain Partners (www.trimountain.partners) is an established mid-market private equity firm focused on investing in fast-growing businesses in the broader business services, consumer and education sectors. Through its differentiated and flexible “partnership-style” investment approach, as well as its extensive experience and global networks in the sectors in which it invests, Trimountain seeks to partner with talented founder-owners, entrepreneurs and well-invested management teams in the UK, North America and Continental Europe, who are seeking the right partner to further accelerate the growth of their businesses organically and through acquisitions.

About Ashridge Capital
Ashridge Capital (www.ashridgecapital.com) is a UK focused private equity firm investing in growing, profitable and cash generative companies. It seeks to partner with ambitious management teams and leverage its extensive experience of investing in and helping build growing businesses. Ashridge Capital has a generalist sector approach and a proactive fucus on buy and build and roll-out investments in the healthcare, leisure, IT, retail and outsourcing sectors.

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Billingham, 27th January – RED Driving School is honoured to have won two coveted industry awards. The awards recognise the business’ agile provision for learners during lockdown and continued excellence in driving instructor training. The awards were presented by FirstCar and Feefo. RED has also been shortlisted for another upcoming award by Intelligent Instructor.

Feefo is a leading global reviews and customer insights technology company.

RED Driving School was awarded Feefo’s 2021 Platinum Trusted Service Award “for consistently delivering excellence” with regard to its Driving Instructor Training Service. As one of the UK’s largest driving schools, RED is proud to provide high quality training to the hundreds of instructors in its training pipeline.

The FirstCar Awards 2021 celebrate the best in cars, products, influencers and brands for new drivers.

RED Driving School’s Priority Pass programme was named Marketing Campaign of the Year by FirstCar. As a result of the backlog of learners created by lockdowns, RED created a scheme to help the most proactive learners protect their place in the queue. Over the course of lockdown, those who purchased a voucher received regular updates from RED and were the first to be allocated an instructor so they could get on the road as soon as restrictions were lifted. Those with a priority pass could be confident of securing the lessons they wanted, unaffected by the limited capacity of other driving schools.

The Intelligent Instructor Awards recognise the very best instructors, driving schools and suppliers in the industry.

RED Driving School has been shortlisted for National Driving School of the Year by Intelligent Instructor. The winner will be announced on the 7^th March.

Commenting on the accolades, Ian McIntosh, CEO of RED Driving School, says:

“We’re absolutely thrilled to accept these two awards. Despite a challenging year, everybody at RED has been working incredibly hard to maintain the highest quality services for instructors and learners.

“The quality of training that we provide to our instructors translates into quality training for those learning to drive with RED and means that our driving instructors are regarded as amongst the best in the country.

“Lockdowns made us find new ways to go above and beyond to support our customers and we are delighted to start 2021 off on this fantastic note and look forward to another year of excellence and innovation.”

ENDS

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Andy Neale of the NFE Group says “NFE has worked hard to get to where it is in the fleet risk management industry and has also developed a leading position in the health and wellbeing market related to driver training. Now with the support and backing of the RED team ,we are very excited about the future opportunities that this will bring. Having spent some time looking around for the right fit we are delighted to be joining the RED brand to continuing our journey.”

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